Eat, Drink, and be Buried

Gourmet Detective #6

by Peter King

When the world's finest restaurateurs need assistance, they know they can rely on the Gourmet Detective's discriminating palate to get the job done. After a family of eccentrically dysfunctional British aristocrats hires the sleuth to design a menu for their medieval-theme castle resort, he anticipates a great opportunity to explore a forgotten but nonetheless mouth-watering cuisine. A cake walk? Maybe not, but with the bloodshed of the Middle Ages centuries past, it should at least be safe . . .

Wrong again. Exploring new variations on succulent recipes for fresh venison with traditional frumenty-a pudding made from wholewheat grains, chopped almonds, egg yolk and saffron-the discerning sleuth finds himself the prime suspect in a murder investigation! It seems that a professional joust re-enactor's goose was cooked after he finished one of the investigator's feasts, and authorities have determined the cause of poisoning. To make matters worse, the dead actor had stood in at the last minute for the scion of the infighting noble family . . . had the poison been meant for him? And why would someone want to kill him?

Before he can answer these questions, the intrepid Gourmet Detective will have to dodge stray arrows, escape a flooding dungeon, avoid the authorities' suspicion, and nab the crooks-all while finding a way to get four-and-twenty live blackbirds under the crust of a pot-pie already filled with chicken, bacon, mushrooms, raisins, and cloves. Can the Gourmet Detective solve the crime, save his skin, and design an authentic assortment of medieval Europe's most prized delicacies in the meantime?

One way or the other, it won't be a banquet.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Media Tie In

240 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Peter King is an English born author of mystery fiction, a Cordon Bleu trained chef and a retired metallurgist and aerospace scientist. Before writing full time, he operated a tungsten mine, prospected worldwide and worked on rocket engines for NASA Apollo missions. After retiring in 1991, he began writing fiction and is best known for the Gourmet Detective series and the Jack London historical mysteries. His work blends culinary detail, historical research and classic whodunit storytelling.

Reviews

[Eugene · Rating 2 out of 5]

The usual in this series: light on actual plot, a relatively entertaining story, and the Gourmet Detective (never named) trying to charm everyone into giving him the information he wants and canoodling casually with the plethora of “hot babes” he seems to run into on every case. Does this make it sound like the books are superficial? Well, yes they are, facile even, but they can be viewed as maybe, “beach reads for the off-season”? I’ve read all in this series to this point and have always picked up the next, so there’s your endorsement.
Last of these books available as paperbacks, although perhaps mainly from online purveyors, the other two are (if even any longer available) only in media or hardcover; neither modality to my taste, so this will be my adieu to the Gourmet Detective…

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is an enjoyable read. The writing is pretty good, it sort of reminds me of Lawrence Sander's McNally character. It is all from the Gourmet Detectives POV and you never hear his name. You have no description of him or his age, which is ok, but he seems to attract a lot of attention and beds women quite quickly with no emotional after effect. Also, he never has a clue until the very end where he puts it all together but he had to have been thinking about the various parts and he doesn't indicate any of it in the story. The food part is wonderful, it makes me want to cook all the different recipes. All it all it is a fun read, not too heavy, and informative too.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Face-paced mystery set in a castle in England, that is recreating the medieval experience for visitors complete with food dishes from that time period. Only, all is not running smoothly for the events, due to the squabbles within the family of siblings from two marriages of the current duke.
If you enjoy the medieval time period, have ever desired to see a joist on horseback to just love different types of meals, you will enjoy the variety within this novel.

[Robin Byers-Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a nice quick read and I like it. My problem and the reason I give it three is because I’m a vegetarian and all that talk of maiming animals cutting them up and cooking them and very disgusting detail has me just fast forwarding. I don’t have to read that But occasionally, I find there was actually a nugget of information I needed there. Oh well, too bad but I’m going on to read the next one.

[Neely Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

At last the Gourmet Detective is doing what he does best—researching medieval meals and offering suggestions to the kitchen of a castle. The public loves visiting and touring the castle and especially the meals prepared the way they were in bygone times. Still, the death of a young stuntman sends the intrepid detective through the halls of history searching for answers.

[Amy Webster-Bo · Rating 2 out of 5]

fas read, but kinda boring, the death was a good bonus, but i figured out why before the end, so it was ok, but i probably will not read anymore, though i only had two of his to begin with, and they were the middle ones ,lol

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall felt very dated, and the way he wrote the women was particularly grating. The historical food details are interesting - if you're going to read it, read it for that.

[Periko · Rating 1 out of 5]

Po no me ha gustado porque mezcla la cocina con el misterio y la verdad es que interés en lo primero no tengo na

[YADUD3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the way the book was written. Some may say that the ending was expected and I did not expect the ending.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, hmm... I've read the whole series now. I'm not going to do individual book reviews, some of them are better than others, but they're all enjoyable, quick reads. Then again, throw gourmet food and wine into anything and I'm likely to add some points to it in my mind. Bizarrely, though, given that I gave all the books three stars, I don't know that I recommend them. Had they been written fifty years ago, I'd give them some more slack, but here are my issues with, well, all of them:

The gourmet detective himself, our protagonist, is an unlikable twit. He's a middle aged, pretentious white man, with delusions of self importance. He fancies himself a ladies man and, of course, manages to get one or another into bed (trailed off, never portrayed, just make sure we know it happened, wink, wink) in all or almost all the books. He's misogynistic, racist, and classist. He fancies himself a connoisseur of all things food and wine, and throws about names and terms, most of which the average reader will not have heard of, and will probably just move past without much thought. The problem is, he's pretty much clueless and the mistakes in his descriptions of various ingredients, dishes, and bottles of fermented grape juice are legion.

In short, and yes, I realize I'm generalizing and could be accused of bias myself, he's the sort of detective that a 70+ year old retired upper middle class British metallurgical engineer (who apparently at some point went to the Cordon Bleu cooking school to be trained as a chef, though my bet is he just took a few cooking classes for home cooks, then again, who knows, but it seems he did it after retiring at some point in his 70s) would reimagine himself to be if he were to become a food detective. In short, a sort of Walter Mitty alter ego.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It stinks that I have to read this series out of order, but the books are no longer in print as far as I have searched. Reason why I'm indulging is because Hallmark Movies and Mysteries decided to use my favorite eye-candy, Dylan Neal, as the Gourmet Detective. I have yet to watch those movies (I might have to download them illegally since I'm too fucking cheap to pay online and I can't afford satellite from that frigid TV company). But I could tell the differences in the movies vs. books. In the movies, Hallmark had to clean up the main character's romance life and make him stick with a female detective throughout. In the book series, Peter King doesn't seem to give a flying fuck about commitment (nothing wrong with it, but his way of doing it leaves a bad taste) and makes the Gourmet Detective into a complete ninny over the women he encounters.

Moving forward, Peter King does a fine job pointing out the sexism displayed by the male characters and throughout his writing. The reason I'm not going to wring his neck is because I have a feeling he did this on purpose to expose the sexism on mystery books as well as the real criminal justice world. These stories are slightly outdated, but did a fine job pointing out the issues that women face today when they are upholders of the law or even lawbreakers.

In this case, a woman commits a crime and uses her sexuality to dupe the main character for a while. However, I didn't appreciate the mental disorder misinterpretation. I don't know if the past knowledge of schizophrenia had anything to do with the author's knowledge at the time, but it's fair to say that this condition gets a bad reputation. Though I'm not a psychiatrist or psychologist, schizophrenia is only influenced by genetics, not determined by it (about 10% chance by close family member). There is a much higher chance of having this based on head trauma/injury or environmental causes. I would have accepted Angela's mental illness if the author delved more with reasonable explanations or signs of it. Her mother is already admitted in an instituition and has little impact on her child unless the lack of having a mother traumatized her. Her brother, Norman, doesn't have this which is alright, but I feel like he's ignored or pushed aside on not experiencing any haunting problems from this.

In the end, I'm glad the female inspector turned the tables on the Gourmet Detective and didn't seemed fazed by his pouting behavior.

[Jenna Scribbles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review refers to the 2012 release of Eat, Drink and Be Buried (The Gourmet Detective Mysteries) through Open Road Media.

What a fun little cozy mystery. If you are a food buff, and like a bit of English history in your stories, then I suggest you give this book a try.

I received a review copy through NetGalley and the publisher.

The unnamed lead, The Gourmet Detective, is at Harlington Castle in Hertfordshire to help rewrite the menus. The castle is the location for daily medieval reenactments. The food has strayed a bit from authentic offerings and the culinary expert is there to make suggestions...until someone gets poisoned and then his purpose turns to finding the killer.

There is a lot of food talk in this story and I enjoyed all of it. At times it seemed a little heavy-handed, but in the end I discovered much of it was for the purposes of building on and later solving the mystery.

I found reading this ebook on my Kindle very helpful. I frequently used the dictionary function to explain old terms and odd food dishes. Perfect.

Peter King originally released this title in 2001 and it is the sixth book in the series. You do not need to read the other five in order to enjoy Eat, Drink, and Be Buried.

A good cozy - especially if you are a foodie or into culinary topics.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love food – and who doesn’t? – if you love to try new dishes, go to new and different restaurants as well as your old favorites, if you love to think and talk about food, then you should meet the Gourmet Detective as he helps Hurlington Castle recreate medieval feasts for their guests, and incidentally stumbles across the murder of one of its jousting participants.

Was the murder accidental? Or was it meant for the son of the lord of the castle? Was the arrow meant for the lord’s daughter? Was the bullet meant for the lord’s step daughter?

The Gourmet Detective seeks to solve the castle’s murders and attempted murders as he finds solutions to the Castle Hurlington’s new medieval menus, and along the way we read about food, murders and near murders while being tempted by Peter King’s skillful suspense and humor.

This is a fun read full of good food, good humor, and a murder and a few near murders – a delicious meal in itself.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Gourmet Detective finds himself in an English castle, where he is charged with making a medieaval themed menu more authentic, and yet still suitable for a modern resort audience. Nice bits of history abound, such as 4and20 Blackbirds Baked in a Pie, argot mania, how to make eel palatable for today's tongue and more. The food isn't as much the focus of this work as is the mystery, nicely done and full of mysterious threats, red herrings, presumed nobility, and damsels in distress.

--Ashland Mystery

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another in this series of entertaining, "light" fiction. I like the books because they are mysteries and the intricate and often obscure information (which I believe is accurate) about foods and their preparations.

While I am not a cordon bleu chef like the author, I do like (and have been known) to cook a decent meal or two.

[Cortez_jk · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was like an episode of "midsummer murders". the book carried itself along and at the last maybe 5-10 pages everything came together with the ending being dull yet slightly cheerful. the book made me hungry more than anything.

[Sugarpop · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read book one, two and then six. I realize that it is out of order. However, it just doesn't sustain my interest enough to seek out books three, four and five.

[Chris Leuchtenburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another amusing culinary history mystery.

[Nusrat Jahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scrumpticiously mysterious and fun :)